About Brand Imaging

Before we begin, it’s important to have a clear understanding of just what a brand image is. Here’s the short definition:

The consumer’s impression of a company’s qualities and shortcomings.

These qualities and shortcomings can be real or imaginary – it doesn’t really matter because people’s perception is their reality. What does matter is that you can impact those perceptions in a positive way through social media. Here’s how:

Minimize Promotion

When using social media as a marketing tool, always be mindful of the fact that people use it to improve their lives in some way. What that “way” is differs from one person to the next. But one thing is certain: People don’t use social media to be bombarded with advertising from their social media contacts, friends, and followers.

So the first rule in brand imaging on social media is to avoid the excessive use of purely promotional material. How much is permissible? Generally speaking, if you’re posting on social media daily, you could safely post a promotional message once a month. But you don’t really need to even do that. Instead…

Become a Content Machine

The second rule of brand imaging on social media is to frequently publish relevant, shareable content about clean energy and related topics. How frequently? Once per day, at a minimum. You’re probably clenching your jaw right now thinking; “I don’t have time to create one or more pieces of content a day!” Relax… I’m not suggesting you do that. What I am suggesting is that you engage in some content curation.

Content curation is the practice of finding online content that someone else has published, and share a link to that content with your social media followers. Of course, you don’t just share the link. You include a brief comment with your own thoughts about the topic being covered in the content. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of extra minutes to do this. After all, you already spend time reading to keep up with the industry, right? Investing a few minutes sharing some of what you’ve read is time well spent.

Sharing You

Of course, it’s not advisable to only publish curated content. To maximize the effectiveness of your social media branding efforts, you should also share some of your own content. You may already be publishing content on a company blog or other theme-based web pages. To use this content as a branding tool, simply share a link to these articles on your social media outlets. Of course, your accompanying comments should be limited to a brief summary of what the article you’re linking to is about.

The Cumulative Effect

Remember our short definition of brand image? Well, all of this non-promotional content serves to build your reputation and credibility as an expert in the field of clean energy. In other words, you’ve enhanced the consumer’s impression of your company’s qualities and, over time, diminished or eliminated any perceived shortcomings.

And remember when I said you wouldn’t even need to publish promotional content? By positioning your company as an expert in clean energy, yours will be the first company your social media followers think of when they’re in need of a clean energy solution.

Everybody wins.

If you’d like to learn more about how to create your brand image as a clean energy company, or you need help with other aspects of your marketing strategy, contact us online or call 408-529-8325.

If there was ever a marketing tool that was tailor made for the clean energy industry, social media would probably be it. Anytime you can create a marketing piece and get it in front of consumers without having to spend a great deal of money on printing and postage, you’re way ahead of the game. Such is the case with social media.

In the social media world, the “marketing piece” is usually nothing more than a simple post or tweet, the “distribution channel” is the social media site, and the “postage” is a keyword or hashtag. But, unlike physical distribution channels that often necessitate sending out hundreds or thousands of pieces to get a single inquiry, consumers of social media content have actively searched for that content by searching on a specific keyword or hashtag. These inbound leads are very highly qualified.

Another phenomenon that makes social media an effective marketing tool for the clean energy industry is the ease with which content can be shared. Remember, your social media content is a marketing piece. When consumers of your content share it with others, they’re lending their personal credibility to your message – becoming de facto spokespeople for your company. Let’s face it, people are more likely to read a social media post that was recommended by a friend than a brochure they receive through the mail. They’re also more likely to forward it on to their own social media contacts – that’s how content goes “viral”. This can be huge for clean energy companies that want to expand their prospect pool beyond consumers who are already sold on the importance and benefits of clean energy.

Finally, using social media as a marketing tool enables you to be very prolific in producing marketing content, and extremely nimble in its delivery. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a credible news article came out about a recent study that demonstrates how economical solar power systems are compared to traditional power sources without sacrificing dependability. In a matter of minutes, you could post a link to that article on your social media outlets along with your own comments about the article itself and the study cited. While this example isn’t of a marketing message about your particular product, such a message adds to your credibility as a clean energy expert. This helps to create and maintain your brand image – an essential component of any marketing strategy

Watch for future posts on marketing clean energy on social media. Meanwhile, If you have questions about how social media can help with your clean energy marketing efforts, or other marketing related questions, contact us online or call 408-529-8325.

According to a recent article in Greentech Media, marketing solar energy has a number of problems, not the least of which is the fact that most people surveyed could not name a single residential solar power provider. In almost every other industry, people can identify at least one and even more companies that provide a service.

The other major problem that that the solar power industry has is the widespread perception that it is more expensive than power derived from more conventional means. To be sure everyone knows that solar is better for the environment than fossil fuels. But the perception that it is expensive has been a barrier for the widespread acceptance of solar power.

Thus marketers of solar power have a two-fold problem. First they have to establish a brand identification. Then they will have to educate the public about the virtues of solar power and prove to potential customers that in many circumstances it can be cheaper than drawing power from the grid.

The trick seems to be is not to try to draw differences in technology, since the differences between one tape of solar panel and another are very subtle to most end users. The trick is to realize that a solar power company, like every other company, is providing a service. The service in this case is less expensive electricity that is environmentally benign, with the cost benefits being the most important. Thus the marketing of solar power is as much an education exercise as it is an attempt to one-up the competition.

Satisfied customers are the best marketing resource for any business. This adage is especially true in the Cleantech sector, where unproven technologies and uncertain return-on-investment abound. Although we all wish we could have our most satisfied customers sit down with all our prospects to chat about their experience working with you, realistically this isn’t possible in most cases. So a portfolio of well-crafted customer testimonials is the next best thing. Here are our Top Ten Tips for Terrific Customer Testimonials.

1. Concise Summary of the Challenges

Testimonials have the most impact when the challenges faced and overcome by the customer match those of the prospect. So the temptation is to be vague about the customer’s situation and challenges, to avoid being shut out of consideration. However, we recommend that you to be as specific as you can about the customer’s business (industry, size, location) and pre-existing situation (challenges that led them to look for the solution you brought). But don’t write a novel, this is only the preamble. Get to the heart of the matter quickly.

2. Compelling Differentiation Led to Choice of Your Firm

Every problem has multiple solutions. But your customer chose you for a reason. Illustrate and elaborate on your unique advantages that led to the customer’s choice of your solution for their problem. Was it technical features, responsive delivery time, outstanding customer service, your rock-solid reputation, or some combination of these and more? Even if you were the low-cost bidder, price should never be quoted as your differentiator. Value, yes. Price, no.

3. Financial Impact of the Product or Solution

The product or solution that you delivered to the customer had a financial impact to them, in terms of cost savings, ROI (return on investment), reduced LCOE (levelized cost of electricity), or some other financial metric. Work closely with your customer to ensure that they are able to measure and validate the financial impact in some way which is meaningful to their executives, board, and shareholders. Then concisely convey that financial impact in the testimonial.

4. Personal Impact of Working With You

In addition to the financial impact, your customer had a unique personal experience working with you. Perhaps you consistently delivered ahead of due dates. Perhaps you always brought bagels and coffee to project team meetings. Perhaps In any case, your satisfied customers have a story to tell about the pleasure of collaborating with you.

5. Quotable Quotes

In addition to longer, paragraph-length prose, you want to make sure that your customer gives you some choice soundbites that you can pull out as quotable quotes for sidebars, feature text, and the like.

6. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

We all know the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Be sure to include photographs of your product in operation at your customer’s location, the overall project, and the customer who is being quoted in the testimonial.

7. Bullet Summary

The best customer testimonial is worth nothing if it is not read. That’s why you need a high-impact bulletized summary of the key points to pull in readers who only have time to skim. If the bullets interest them, they will read the full testimonial.

8. Repurpose Across Media

Customer testimonials can be as simple as a prepared PDF file or as elaborate as a complex graphic/animation. With good pre-planning and customers who are willing to tell their story, one customer interview can yield several different testimonial vehicles. For example, a PDF file, PowerPoint slides, a video, and a webpage.

9. Publicize!

The best story is no good unless it is told. Work with your PR professionals to shop your customer’s story around to print and online publications to get favorable coverage in exchange for an exclusive (time-limited). Then promote your customer testimonials through every channel available (and affordable) to you. Consider web advertising, speaker placement, and multimedia.

10. Quantity vs. Quality

The ideal portfolio of customer testimonials will include a spectrum of stories across the products/services you offer and market segments (industries, regions) you serve. But don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. Better to have fewer, high quality customer testimonials than a large collection of stories that don’t demonstrate the value you deliver.

At Energia Marketing, we have extensive experience researching, writing, and producing customer testimonials that clearly demonstrate the value that your unique Cleantech solution offers. Please contact us today to discuss how we can help.

Intersolar North America is one of the largest solar industry trade shows in North America. Nearly 30,000 solar experts and enthusiasts will converge on the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco next Tuesday through Thursday (July 9-11) to share the latest innovations and developments in solar. I will be there, walking the show floor, meeting up with new and prospective clients, and attending some educational sessions. Look here for blog updates with the latest news — live from the show floor!

If you’re going to be at Intersolar next week, send me an email or text and let’s meet for coffee! If you are interested in going to Intersolar but haven’t yet registered, drop me a line as I should be able to get you a free pass to the Expo hall.